Elysium or the Elysian Fields is a conception of the afterlife that developed over time and was maintained by certain Greek religious and philosophical sects and cults. Initially separate from the realm of Hades, admission was reserved for mortals related to the gods and other heroes. Later, it expanded to include those chosen by the gods, the righteous, and the heroic, where they would remain after death, to live a blessed and happy life, and indulging in whatever employment they had enjoyed in life.The Elysian Fields were, according to Homer, located on the western edge of the Earth by the stream of Okeanos. In the time of the Greek oral poet Hesiod, Elysium would also be known as the Fortunate Isles or the Isles of the Blessed, located in the western ocean at the end of the earth. The Isles of the Blessed would be reduced to a single island by the Thebean poet Pindar, describing it as having shady parks, with residents indulging their athletic and musical pastimes.The ruler of Elysium varies from author to author: Pindar and Hesiod name Cronus as the ruler, while the poet Homer in the Odyssey describes fair-haired Rhadamanthus dwelling there. Wikipedia.

Washington, DC, May 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Washington, D.C. (May 17, 2017) — Madison Investments, the family owned and operated real estate development firm located in the nation’s capital, is pleased to announce the anticipated September 2017 opening of their newest luxury condominium, Kipling House, located at 900 11th Street, SE, 20003.
Conveniently located in the center of our nation’s capital, Kipling House offers city dwellers the first entirely new condominium built on Capitol Hill in the last 15 years. With spacious studio, one, and two bedroom homes, Kipling House offers luxury living with designer finishes and convenient amenities to complement a modern lifestyle and bring the epitome of living well in the heart of the District.
Madison Investments tapped PGN Architects and Akseizer Design Group to design its unique and well-proportioned units, which span between approximately 550 to 1350 square feet. Kipling House offers its homeowners’ sophisticated materials and subtle, natural palettes, which provide the perfect backdrop for each owner’s individual style. The spacious residences feature dynamically contrasting two-toned wood cabinetry harmonizing beautifully with stone countertops and backsplashes as well as, striking matte-black fixtures and hardware. Residents can also take advantage of upscale-shared amenities including a chic outdoor terrace, perfect for grilling and summer entertaining. The expansive rooftop deck has a capacity for 158 people with comfortable all weather furnishing affording homeowners striking views of the Washington Monument, the US Capitol building, and the Library of Congress. There is a combination of 22 underground and five surface parking spaces, as well as 26 bicycle slots.
Situated in the heart of Capitol Hill, Kipling House residents have everything they need right at their fingertips, from excellent donuts at District Donuts to the Miracle Theater, a beautifully restored historic cinema house. Right outside their door, one can take full advantage of some of the most intriguing landmarks and restaurants including the upcoming 11th Street Bridge Park, the U.S. Capitol, Marine Barracks, Library of Congress, Nationals Park, Rose's Luxury, Hank's Oyster Bar, Montmarte, Tunnicliff's Tavern, Bayou Bakery, and Peregrine Espresso.
Madison Investments' philosophy and approach to each development stems from the notion of ‘how much can we give’ as opposed ‘what can we get away with’ the latter of which is all too common. Every property is developed with a great deal of attention to details and exquisitely designed common areas and all of this is brought about through careful collaboration with designers and architects. With the partnership of world class businesses including PGN Architecture, McWilliams | Ballard for sales and marketing, Eagle Bank, and ADG for Interiors architecture and branding, Madison Investments was able to bring their impressive vision for Kipling House to life. For sales inquiries please visit: https://www.kiplingdc.com/inquire/.
Founded in 2006, Madison Investments is a family owned and operated real estate development firm located in the nation’s capital, focusing on the renovation and ground-up development of residential and mixed-use properties in the District with an emphasis on luxury design. Madison is propelled by the vision of its two founders, Sia and Barry Madani, and behind them is a versatile team that fuses expertise with diverse sectors. The firm’s management team has worked together in Washington D.C. and its surrounding markets in varying capacities for over 35 years. The company has performed a successful number of projects beginning with a six-unit condo conversion project in Columbia Heights called The Elysium, and currently has seven completed projects throughout the district including Elysium Fourteen, Colvin House, Trevelyan House, Hailey House, Thomason House, Lawrence House, and 1020 Monroe. For more information, please visit http://www.madisoninvestments.net/.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ba1e11a3-f87d-42cf-9cba-84ea3a9e662a

Washington, DC, May 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Washington, D.C. (May 17, 2017) — Madison Investments, the family owned and operated real estate development firm located in the nation’s capital, is pleased to announce the anticipated September 2017 opening of their newest luxury condominium, Kipling House, located at 900 11th Street, SE, 20003.
Conveniently located in the center of our nation’s capital, Kipling House offers city dwellers the first entirely new condominium built on Capitol Hill in the last 15 years. With spacious studio, one, and two bedroom homes, Kipling House offers luxury living with designer finishes and convenient amenities to complement a modern lifestyle and bring the epitome of living well in the heart of the District.
Madison Investments tapped PGN Architects and Akseizer Design Group to design its unique and well-proportioned units, which span between approximately 550 to 1350 square feet. Kipling House offers its homeowners’ sophisticated materials and subtle, natural palettes, which provide the perfect backdrop for each owner’s individual style. The spacious residences feature dynamically contrasting two-toned wood cabinetry harmonizing beautifully with stone countertops and backsplashes as well as, striking matte-black fixtures and hardware. Residents can also take advantage of upscale-shared amenities including a chic outdoor terrace, perfect for grilling and summer entertaining. The expansive rooftop deck has a capacity for 158 people with comfortable all weather furnishing affording homeowners striking views of the Washington Monument, the US Capitol building, and the Library of Congress. There is a combination of 22 underground and five surface parking spaces, as well as 26 bicycle slots.
Situated in the heart of Capitol Hill, Kipling House residents have everything they need right at their fingertips, from excellent donuts at District Donuts to the Miracle Theater, a beautifully restored historic cinema house. Right outside their door, one can take full advantage of some of the most intriguing landmarks and restaurants including the upcoming 11th Street Bridge Park, the U.S. Capitol, Marine Barracks, Library of Congress, Nationals Park, Rose's Luxury, Hank's Oyster Bar, Montmarte, Tunnicliff's Tavern, Bayou Bakery, and Peregrine Espresso.
Madison Investments' philosophy and approach to each development stems from the notion of ‘how much can we give’ as opposed ‘what can we get away with’ the latter of which is all too common. Every property is developed with a great deal of attention to details and exquisitely designed common areas and all of this is brought about through careful collaboration with designers and architects. With the partnership of world class businesses including PGN Architecture, McWilliams | Ballard for sales and marketing, Eagle Bank, and ADG for Interiors architecture and branding, Madison Investments was able to bring their impressive vision for Kipling House to life. For sales inquiries please visit: https://www.kiplingdc.com/inquire/.
Founded in 2006, Madison Investments is a family owned and operated real estate development firm located in the nation’s capital, focusing on the renovation and ground-up development of residential and mixed-use properties in the District with an emphasis on luxury design. Madison is propelled by the vision of its two founders, Sia and Barry Madani, and behind them is a versatile team that fuses expertise with diverse sectors. The firm’s management team has worked together in Washington D.C. and its surrounding markets in varying capacities for over 35 years. The company has performed a successful number of projects beginning with a six-unit condo conversion project in Columbia Heights called The Elysium, and currently has seven completed projects throughout the district including Elysium Fourteen, Colvin House, Trevelyan House, Hailey House, Thomason House, Lawrence House, and 1020 Monroe. For more information, please visit http://www.madisoninvestments.net/.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ba1e11a3-f87d-42cf-9cba-84ea3a9e662a

Scifi writer Jon Wallace considers whether implants will unlock some hidden human potential – or do irreparable damage to our existence
Last month, The Engineer reported on progress towards bionic eye implants. An array of silicon nanowires arranged in an electrode grid, implanted behind the retina and linked to a wireless device, has potential to restore sight. Once again engineering news astounds and delights – the scifi eye given life.
Technological implants play a solid role in science fiction as a crucial component of the idea of the ‘transhuman’: that is, an evolutionary leap that sees mankind combine with technology to alter its perception and abilities.
Interest in implants tends particularly towards the neural interface: as science has come to understand consciousness as more a product of the brain’s complex functions (as opposed to the awareness granted an immortal soul), so science fiction has explored the fascinating prospect of tampering with our brain’s computing.
Writers like to explore the farthest reaches of such progress: will implants unlock some hidden potential or do irreparable damage? Could they unite humanity through a new, shared reality, or create new conflict – between those who embrace transformation and those who refuse it? Can we forfeit some precious part of ourselves yet be better people for it?
These are all excellent foundations for stories: the fact that this research centres on the eye only rings more scifi bells: eyes are often the giveaway ‘otherness’ in the implanted or adapted: see Star Trek’s Seven of Nine and her bulky ocular attachment.
The Borg are a reasonable representative for the portrayal of implanted characters, who are often disfigured, manipulated figures. The Borg’s implants are their chains, playing on our fears of an inescapable totalitarian commotion in our heads, countless voices drowning out our thoughts. Star Trek’s writers return to the Borg (again and again) because the stumbling, mindless drone, ‘awoken’ from captivity, makes a wonderful character. As long-lost relatives they can comment on our society with pleasing effect.
Cinematic bad rap
‘Implants’ generally bad rap in cinema extends to many other forms. In The Matrix they are part of a ruthless trick, both duping man into oblivious service of machines and harvesting his energy. In Johnny Mnemonic and Elysium they are the tool by which men are made data mules: heroes chased and harried for the precious treasure in their heads. Novels such as Iain M Banks’ Feersum Endjinn, meanwhile, see implants deployed by the ultimate future surveillance state, allowing the King to jump into his subjects’ heads at will and see through their eyes – although they also grant humans a kind of immortality beyond ‘base reality’.
Still, The Engineer’s news shows we don’t always have to view implants as obscene, probing devices that subvert our natural function. They can repair and even enhance us too. In recent decades, man has proven himself more than willing to bond to technology, to lose himself in other realities, and it hasn’t been all bad. Should we really fear the inevitable plunge into more intimate relations with technology?
What need will we have of dreary office spaces, when in the blink of an eye implanted workers can transfer to a virtual workspace? We might well imagine that in such a world senior management would be unable to resist exploiting the technology to eavesdrop on employees – but would that be so bad? In our story, tyrannical chief execs around the world eagerly monitor their employees’ conversations, only to find complete and universal scorn for their abilities. Depressed, they resign en masse; the employees learn to go on without them easily enough, and an entirely new system of labour is established, free of redundant hierarchies.
Sinister uses
Might implants be used invasively by the government? What of a police force that boasts an implant that compels suspects to speak the truth? We could tell the story of a prime ministerial candidate who volunteers to have the device implanted, along with his own party, to prove the purity of their politics. They are wiped off the political map, as the electorate turn to the rival parties’ comforting fantasy and falsehood.
Then there is the promise of The Engineer’s news story: of restoration and even enhancement of the senses. Implants could help release the victims of strokes and debilitating syndromes, allowing them to express themselves again by providing bridges over damaged synaptic pathways.
Being human, their use might be more frivolous. We could follow the adventures of a Harley Street implant clinic that exploits a craze for implant-enhanced senses, offering its clients a dog’s sense of smell. The service is hugely popular, and has mixed results: many lose their jobs (being prone to wandering off into woodland and openly peeing during meetings). The more influential clientele do however, make a difference: pushing through a great world clean-air act.
Jon Wallace is a science fiction author living in England. His new book Rig is out in paperback from Gollancz in April

RADAR is a 7-member consortium that aims to develop a robust, sensitive, and versatile label-free, biosensor platform for spot measurements and on-line monitoring of toxins and pollutants in food production processes and in the aquatic environment.
Specificity towards chemical pollutants and toxins is achieved by using recombinant receptors (namely the estrogen receptor and the aryl hydrocarbon receptor) whose amino acid sequences have been rationally designed based on genomic and functional information from aquatic organisms.
Sensitivity of the biosensor is increased by the unique combination of isotachophoretic pre-concentration step, and surface nanostructuring & chemical modification.
The integration of the label-free detection sensors with an on-line automated sample handling and a wireless communication system will yield a best-in-class biosensor platform for robust, specific and sensitive detection of EDCs and PAHs in difficult operating conditions.
To validate the RADAR biosensor the consortium will test the biosensors in fresh and marine water, in fish farms, and in food products such as fish, fruit juices, and milk. Through their contacts in these industries, the partners will evaluate the performance of the biosensors in such environments, analyzing a representative number of samples and reporting on the stability, ruggedness and accuracy of the sensors used under laboratory and real test conditions.
This project is expected to have a high economic impact, since our cost-effective sensor could find a worldwide distribution in most food production and water testing lines as supported by Agilent Technologies Inc.

Mars' mantle may be more complicated than previously thought. In a new study published today in the Nature-affiliated journal Scientific Reports, researchers at LSU document geochemical changes over time in the lava flows of Elysium, a major martian volcanic province.
LSU Geology and Geophysics graduate researcher David Susko led the study with colleagues at LSU including his advisor Suniti Karunatillake, the University of Rahuna in Sri Lanka, the SETI Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology, NASA Ames, and the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie in France.
They found that the unusual chemistry of lava flows around Elysium is consistent with primary magmatic processes, such as a heterogeneous mantle beneath Mars' surface or the weight of the overlying volcanic mountain causing different layers of the mantle to melt at different temperatures as they rise to the surface over time.
Elysium is a giant volcanic complex on Mars, the second largest behind Olympic Mons. For scale, it rises to twice the height of Earth's Mount Everest, or approximately 16 kilometers. Geologically, however, Elysium is more like Earth's Tibesti Mountains in Chad, the Emi Koussi in particular, than Everest. This comparison is based on images of the region from the Mars Orbiter Camera, or MOC, aboard the Mars Global Surveyor, or MGS, Mission.
Elysium is also unique among martian volcanoes. It's isolated in the northern lowlands of the planet, whereas most other volcanic complexes on Mars cluster in the ancient southern highlands. Elysium also has patches of lava flows that are remarkably young for a planet often considered geologically silent.
"Most of the volcanic features we look at on Mars are in the range of 3-4 billion years old," Susko said. "There are some patches of lava flows on Elysium that we estimate to be 3-4 million years old, so three orders of magnitude younger. In geologic timescales, 3 million years ago is like yesterday."
In fact, Elysium's volcanoes hypothetically could still erupt, Susko said, although further research is needed to confirm this. "At least, we can't yet rule out active volcanoes on Mars," Susko said. "Which is very exciting."
Susko's work in particular reveals that the composition of volcanoes on Mars may evolve over their eruptive history. In earlier research led by Karunatillake, assistant professor in LSU's Department of Geology and Geophysics, researchers in LSU's Planetary Science Lab, or PSL, found that particular regions of Elysium and the surrounding shallow subsurface of Mars are geochemically anomalous, strange even relative to other volcanic regions on Mars. They are depleted in the radioactive elements thorium and potassium. Elysium is one of only two igneous provinces on Mars where researchers have found such low levels of these elements so far.
"Because thorium and potassium are radioactive, they are some of the most reliable geochemical signatures that we have on Mars," Susko said. "They act like beacons emitting their own gamma photons. These elements also often couple in volcanic settings on Earth."
In their new paper, Susko and colleagues started to piece together the geologic history of Elysium, an expansive volcanic region on Mars characterized by strange chemistry. They sought to uncover why some of Elysium's lava flows are so geochemically unusual, or why they have such low levels of thorium and potassium. Is it because, as other researchers have suspected, glaciers located in this region long ago altered the surface chemistry through aqueous processes? Or is it because these lava flows arose from different parts of Mars' mantle than other volcanic eruptions on Mars?
Perhaps the mantle has changed over time, meaning that more recent volcanic eruption flows differ chemically from older ones. If so, Susko could use Elysium's geochemical properties to study how Mars' bulk mantle has evolved over geologic time, with important insights for future missions to Mars. Understanding the evolutionary history of Mars' mantle could help researchers gain a better understanding of what kinds of valuable ores and other materials could be found in the crust, as well as whether volcanic hazards could unexpectedly threaten human missions to Mars in the near future. Mars' mantle likely has a very different history than Earth's mantle because the plate tectonics on Earth are absent on Mars as far as researchers know. The history of the bulk interior of the red planet also remains a mystery.
Susko and colleagues at LSU analyzed geochemical and surface morphology data from Elysium using instruments on board NASA's Mars Odyssey Orbiter (2001) and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2006). They had to account for the dust that blankets Mars' surface in the aftermath of strong dust storms, to make sure that the shallow subsurface chemistry actually reflected Elysium's igneous material and not the overlying dust.
Through crater counting, the researchers found differences in age between the northwest and the southeast regions of Elysium -- about 850 million years of difference. They also found that the younger southeast regions are geochemically different from the older regions, and that these differences in fact relate to igneous processes, not secondary processes like the interaction of water or ice with the surface of Elysium in the past.
"We determined that while there might have been water in this area in the past, the geochemical properties in the top meter throughout this volcanic province are indicative of igneous processes," Susko said. "We think levels of thorium and potassium here were depleted over time because of volcanic eruptions over billions of years. The radioactive elements were the first to go in the early eruptions. We are seeing changes in the mantle chemistry over time."
"Long-lived volcanic systems with changing magma compositions are common on Earth, but an emerging story on Mars," said James Wray, study co-author and associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech.
Wray led a 2013 study that showed evidence for magma evolution at a different martian volcano, Syrtis Major, in the form of unusual minerals. But such minerals could be originating at the surface of Mars, and are visible only on rare dust-free volcanoes.
"At Elysium we are truly seeing the bulk chemistry change over time, using a technique that could potentially unlock the magmatic history of many more regions across Mars," he said.
Susko speculates that the very weight of Elysium's lava flows, which make up a volcanic province six times higher and almost four times wider than its morphological sister on Earth, Emi Koussi, has caused different depths of Mars' mantle to melt at different temperatures. In different regions of Elysium, lava flows may have come from different parts of the mantle. Seeing chemical differences in different regions of Elysium, Susko and colleagues concluded that Mars' mantle might be heterogeneous, with different compositions in different areas, or that it may be stratified beneath Elysium.
Overall, Susko's findings indicate that Mars is a much more geologically complex body than originally thought, perhaps due to various loading effects on the mantle caused by the weight of giant volcanoes.
"It's more Earth-like than moon-like," Susko said. "The moon is cut and dry. It often lacks the secondary minerals that occur on Earth due to weathering and igneous-water interactions. For decades, that's also how we envisioned Mars, as a lifeless rock, full of craters with a number of long inactive volcanoes. We had a very simple view of the red planet. But the more we look at Mars, the less moon-like it becomes. We're discovering more variety in rock types and geochemical compositions, as seen across the Curiosity Rover's traverse in Gale Crater, and more potential for viable resource utilization and capacity to sustain a human population on Mars. It's much easier to survive on a complex planetary body bearing the mineral products of complex geology than on a simpler body like the moon or asteroids."
Susko plans to continue clarifying the geologic processes that cause the strange chemistry found around Elysium. In the future, he will study these chemical anomalies through computational simulations, to determine if recreating the pressures in Mars' mantle caused by the weight of giant volcanoes could affect mantle melting to yield the type of chemistry observed within Elysium.
David Susko led the team with LSU undergraduate student Taylor Judice from Lafayette, La., mentored by their advisor Suniti Karunatillake. This multi-institutional and international investigation was co-authored by Gayantha Kodikara at the University of Ruhuna in Sri Lanka; John Roma Skok, SETI Institute; James Wray at Georgia Institute of Technology; Jennifer Heldmann at NASA Ames; and Agnes Cousin at the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie in France. NASA's Mars Data Analysis Program (MDAP) funded the project at LSU, which used data from several missions, including the 2001 Mars Odyssey Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS) and the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

LSU Geology and Geophysics graduate researcher David Susko led the study with colleagues at LSU including his advisor Suniti Karunatillake, the University of Rahuna in Sri Lanka, the SETI Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology, NASA Ames, and the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie in France.
They found that the unusual chemistry of lava flows around Elysium is consistent with primary magmatic processes, such as a heterogeneous mantle beneath Mars' surface or the weight of the overlying volcanic mountain causing different layers of the mantle to melt at different temperatures as they rise to the surface over time.
Elysium is a giant volcanic complex on Mars, the second largest behind Olympic Mons. For scale, it rises to twice the height of Earth's Mount Everest, or approximately 16 kilometers. Geologically, however, Elysium is more like Earth's Tibesti Mountains in Chad, the Emi Koussi in particular, than Everest. This comparison is based on images of the region from the Mars Orbiter Camera, or MOC, aboard the Mars Global Surveyor, or MGS, Mission.
Elysium is also unique among martian volcanoes. It's isolated in the northern lowlands of the planet, whereas most other volcanic complexes on Mars cluster in the ancient southern highlands. Elysium also has patches of lava flows that are remarkably young for a planet often considered geologically silent.
"Most of the volcanic features we look at on Mars are in the range of 3-4 billion years old," Susko said. "There are some patches of lava flows on Elysium that we estimate to be 3-4 million years old, so three orders of magnitude younger. In geologic timescales, 3 million years ago is like yesterday."
In fact, Elysium's volcanoes hypothetically could still erupt, Susko said, although further research is needed to confirm this. "At least, we can't yet rule out active volcanoes on Mars," Susko said. "Which is very exciting."
Susko's work in particular reveals that the composition of volcanoes on Mars may evolve over their eruptive history. In earlier research led by Karunatillake, assistant professor in LSU's Department of Geology and Geophysics, researchers in LSU's Planetary Science Lab, or PSL, found that particular regions of Elysium and the surrounding shallow subsurface of Mars are geochemically anomalous, strange even relative to other volcanic regions on Mars. They are depleted in the radioactive elements thorium and potassium. Elysium is one of only two igneous provinces on Mars where researchers have found such low levels of these elements so far.
"Because thorium and potassium are radioactive, they are some of the most reliable geochemical signatures that we have on Mars," Susko said. "They act like beacons emitting their own gamma photons. These elements also often couple in volcanic settings on Earth."
In their new paper, Susko and colleagues started to piece together the geologic history of Elysium, an expansive volcanic region on Mars characterized by strange chemistry. They sought to uncover why some of Elysium's lava flows are so geochemically unusual, or why they have such low levels of thorium and potassium. Is it because, as other researchers have suspected, glaciers located in this region long ago altered the surface chemistry through aqueous processes? Or is it because these lava flows arose from different parts of Mars' mantle than other volcanic eruptions on Mars?
Perhaps the mantle has changed over time, meaning that more recent volcanic eruption flows differ chemically from older ones. If so, Susko could use Elysium's geochemical properties to study how Mars' bulk mantle has evolved over geologic time, with important insights for future missions to Mars. Understanding the evolutionary history of Mars' mantle could help researchers gain a better understanding of what kinds of valuable ores and other materials could be found in the crust, as well as whether volcanic hazards could unexpectedly threaten human missions to Mars in the near future. Mars' mantle likely has a very different history than Earth's mantle because the plate tectonics on Earth are absent on Mars as far as researchers know. The history of the bulk interior of the red planet also remains a mystery.
Susko and colleagues at LSU analyzed geochemical and surface morphology data from Elysium using instruments on board NASA's Mars Odyssey Orbiter (2001) and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2006). They had to account for the dust that blankets Mars' surface in the aftermath of strong dust storms, to make sure that the shallow subsurface chemistry actually reflected Elysium's igneous material and not the overlying dust.
Through crater counting, the researchers found differences in age between the northwest and the southeast regions of Elysium—about 850 million years of difference. They also found that the younger southeast regions are geochemically different from the older regions, and that these differences in fact relate to igneous processes, not secondary processes like the interaction of water or ice with the surface of Elysium in the past.
"We determined that while there might have been water in this area in the past, the geochemical properties in the top meter throughout this volcanic province are indicative of igneous processes," Susko said. "We think levels of thorium and potassium here were depleted over time because of volcanic eruptions over billions of years. The radioactive elements were the first to go in the early eruptions. We are seeing changes in the mantle chemistry over time."
"Long-lived volcanic systems with changing magma compositions are common on Earth, but an emerging story on Mars," said James Wray, study co-author and associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech.
Wray led a 2013 study that showed evidence for magma evolution at a different martian volcano, Syrtis Major, in the form of unusual minerals. But such minerals could be originating at the surface of Mars, and are visible only on rare dust-free volcanoes.
"At Elysium we are truly seeing the bulk chemistry change over time, using a technique that could potentially unlock the magmatic history of many more regions across Mars," he said.
Susko speculates that the very weight of Elysium's lava flows, which make up a volcanic province six times higher and almost four times wider than its morphological sister on Earth, Emi Koussi, has caused different depths of Mars' mantle to melt at different temperatures. In different regions of Elysium, lava flows may have come from different parts of the mantle. Seeing chemical differences in different regions of Elysium, Susko and colleagues concluded that Mars' mantle might be heterogeneous, with different compositions in different areas, or that it may be stratified beneath Elysium.
Overall, Susko's findings indicate that Mars is a much more geologically complex body than originally thought, perhaps due to various loading effects on the mantle caused by the weight of giant volcanoes.
"It's more Earth-like than moon-like," Susko said. "The moon is cut and dry. It often lacks the secondary minerals that occur on Earth due to weathering and igneous-water interactions. For decades, that's also how we envisioned Mars, as a lifeless rock, full of craters with a number of long inactive volcanoes. We had a very simple view of the red planet. But the more we look at Mars, the less moon-like it becomes. We're discovering more variety in rock types and geochemical compositions, as seen across the Curiosity Rover's traverse in Gale Crater, and more potential for viable resource utilization and capacity to sustain a human population on Mars. It's much easier to survive on a complex planetary body bearing the mineral products of complex geology than on a simpler body like the moon or asteroids."
Susko plans to continue clarifying the geologic processes that cause the strange chemistry found around Elysium. In the future, he will study these chemical anomalies through computational simulations, to determine if recreating the pressures in Mars' mantle caused by the weight of giant volcanoes could affect mantle melting to yield the type of chemistry observed within Elysium.
Explore further: Research finds evidence of 2 billion years of volcanic activity on Mars

James Hansen and the Citizens’ Climate Lobby have attracted some heavy hitters from the Reagan Administration to the idea that the simplest, most elegant, most market-friendly and effective approach to reducing CO2 emissions is to apply a direct tax (fee) on all fuels in proportion to the amount of CO2 that they would release when burned.
To prevent such a tax from burdening society or growing government, they would accompany the tax with a 100% distribution of the money collected. The distribution would be exactly the same for each citizen of the United States. Each person would initially receive dividends of approximately $500 per year. A family of four would initially receive $500 every three months with the starting tax rate set at $40 per ton.
The price of a gallon of gas would initially increase by about 36 cents. That price change, while noticeable, pales in comparison to the kinds of changes in gas prices consumers experience with changes in crude oil prices. This change, however, would be in service of our long term interests and to our short term advantage in keeping dividend checks coming.
In contrast, American consumers and businesses have no means of controlling gas price changes as OPEC manipulates its quotas to adjust the world supply and demand balance in ways that its ministers feel are favorable to their own interests. Consumers can only react to changes and adjust driving habits or vehicle purchase decisions.
Since the price increases would not apply to fuels that do not produce CO2, electricity and heat generated by nuclear fission would see a small, but steadily rising cost advantage over competitive fuels. That compares favorably to the current case where nuclear generators pay for their waste storage while their competitors take the waste disposal service at the open end of their smokestacks without payments to anyone.
George Shultz and James A. Baker III are stalwart members of the Republican establishment. Shultz first achieved national prominence as Treasury Secretary for Richard Nixon and later served Ronald Reagan as the Secretary of State. Baker served Ronald Reagan as the Treasury Secretary and George H. W. Bush as Secretary of State. They have joined the public discussion as advocates of the carbon fee and dividend model with an explanatory op-ed in the Feb 7 edition of the Wall Street Journal titled A Conservative Answer To Climate Change.
Baker and Shultz’s piece was matched by an opinion piece in the New York Times titled A Conservative Case For Climate Action. The names of the authors of that piece, Martin S. Feldstein, Ted Halstead and N. Gregory Mankiw are not as immediately recognizable as Shultz and Baker but they have been involved in national affairs almost as long in less public roles as advisors and thought leaders.
Both pieces were aimed at introducing and summarizing a report produced by the Climate Leadership Council (CLC) titled The Conservative Case For Climate Dividends. In addition to the editorial pieces, members of the CLC held a rollout press conference – launch event – that can be watched on YouTube.
Aside: It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that the self described “who’s who of the Republican establishment” have the capability to attract attention. End Aside.
Atomic Insights generally takes the position that The Establishment hasn’t done a very good job in recent decades of leading our nation to the better distribution of prosperity and environmental cleanliness that would be achievable with more effective use of our systematic advantages. We have pointed out many instances in which the people who have already achieved wealth and power have erected barriers to beneficial technology developments in order to protect their own positions.
Often it seems that they overlook the enourmous benefits that modern nuclear energy technologies can provide to the rest of us.
However, we’ve been advocating for the CO2 fee and dividend plan for several years and are heartened by the fact that experienced, numerically inclined people who care deeply about our nation and its security have recognized the elegance and potential effectiveness of a tax and dividend approach.
Not surprisingly, the plan released by Republican Party stalwarts hasn’t been warmly received by all. People who have an ideological aversion to “new taxes” have raised a stink while people with an ingrained distrust of “the government” assert there is no way that bureaucrats will be able to resist grabbing some or all of the fee revenue for pet projects.
A piece from The Daily Signal titled This Republican Tax Proposal Is Anything But Conservative combines both fears and also points to a Heritage Foundation report that indicates numerous negative impacts on the economy as the result of adding costs to fuels that currently supply more than 80% of our foundational energy needs.
Those computed impacts are scary and discouraging, but they rest on a faulty set of assumptions. The most important of those assumptions is that the only nuclear option available through the period of analysis is “advanced” light water reactors costing somewhere between $5500 – $6500 per kilowatt of capacity, with that cost rising with inflation and requiring a decade or more to build.
The model Heritage uses includes factors for “learning” cost reductions for various technologies, but it assumes that advanced nuclear will improve at a rate equal to that for advanced combustion gas turbines and about 1/4th as rapidly as offshore wind, carbon capture and sequestration, or battery storage.
Because they are not yet commercially available Heritage Foundation and Energy Information Agency modeling ignores the efforts of companies like NuScale, Terrestrial Energy, ThorCon, Moltex, X-Energy, U-Battery, Flibe, Holtec, mPower, Elysium, LeadCold, Oklo, ARC, Westinghouse, Kepco, GE-Hitachi, Areva and Rosatom to continue improving their nuclear technology offerings.
Several of those names are unknown to most, but the teams working under their logos are led by people who know that nuclear energy can compete if, and only if, they find effective ways to make large, rapid strides towards simplicity and cost reductions.
If there is an established and predictably rising tax on the CO2 potential for competitive fuels, there will be greater interest in proving some of the modern designs and moving them from paper to full scale manufacturing and operations.
That’s the x-factor that many carbon fee and dividend critics overlook or purposely ignore.
The post Elegant simplicity of a CO2 tax and dividend should attract broad spectrum support appeared first on Atomic Insights.

A method of controlling a model by a computer, includes accepting an instruction of changing a pose or a movement of a standard model for which control data for joint angles is attached; determining a pose or a movement of the standard model based on the instruction and the control data for joint angles; and determining a pose or a movement of a target model to be controlled where parts of the standard model and parts of the target model being in correspondence with each other, such that the pose or the movement of the target model follows the pose or the movement of the determined standard model based on the correspondence of the parts of the standard model and the parts of the target model.

How nature gets microscopic dust and tiny, pebble-sized pieces of proto-planetary material to clump and stick together to make bigger and bigger objects is still puzzling. In a gas-rich disk of material around a forming star these small components are buffeted, dragged, and broken. What may help are ‘dust traps’, regions in the disk where gas pressures are high and solids can slow down for long enough to get bulked up. New work by Gonzalez et al. suggests an ‘aerodynamic drag back-reaction’ (where dust helps squeeze gas into dense traps) that could help.
Problems with the main propulsion on NASA’s Juno mission have led to the decision to keep the spacecraft’s orbit in its present configuration – a longer-than-expected 53 day loop around Jupiter. All the primary science should still get done, and Juno may even last longer because it will avoid more of the intense Jovian radiation environment, but a longer mission also costs more.
Researchers studying data on the Elysium lava flows on Mars have concluded that these great, ancient, outflows show signs of geochemical diversity. This chemical variation indicates a complex geophysical history for Mars (and its mantle), making the planet more similar to the Earth than perhaps we thought. The most recent lava deposits in Elysium seem like they could be a mere 3-4 million years old.
Big planets that orbit close to their host stars might cause some stellar ‘irritation’. De Wit et al. report evidence that the 8 Jupiter mass planet around the star HAT-P-2 is somehow perturbing the stellar atmosphere into a pulsating or flaring behavior.